comte, auguste - the positive philosophy vol III

Positive Philosophy/141

small hut very remarkable class, the diplomatists. This class arose out of the necessity of fulfilling the political relations between different states which the papacy had hitherto taken charge of: and the Catholic constitution supplied its first elements by offering many intelligent and active men, naturally placed at the highest social point of view, without being in any degree military: and we observe, in fact, that the diplomatists were for some time taken from the Catholic clergy, some of whom were glad to employ in this way the political capacity which was no longer required by their declining corporation. Though, from circumstances apparently aristocratic, the spirit of the class is essentially progressive, capacity being always placed in the first rank of personal titles, behind the disguises of official forms: and there has certainly not been in Europe, for three centuries past, any other class so emancipated from political, and perhaps philosophical prejudices,—in virtue of the superiority of its habitual point of view. This civil class, born and bred side by side with the ministerial power, of which it is a sort of natural appendage, has always wrought well in stripping military leadership of its ancient political prerogatives, reducing it more and more to the condition of an instrument, more or less passive, of designs conceived and directed by the civil authority. It especially contributed to the decline of military power by appropriating the work of negotiation for peace or alliance, which was once all inseparable part of the military function: and this, easily explains the instinctive antipathy which has always existed in modern times. under forms more or less expressive, between the higher ranks of the two classes.

This last view leads us on to the final consideration in regard to the temporal dictatorship,—of the efforts which it made to fill up the immense chasm which was left in the political system of Europe by the extinction of the universal authority of the popes. The difficulty arose early in the transition period; but its solution was necessarily deferred; for the only discernible remedy was a regulated material antagonism among the states of Europe; and this could not be had till they had composed their internal troubles, and decided on the character of the temporal dictatorship of each. When that time came the diplomatists went to work with zeal, sustained by a sense of the dignity of their mission, to institute that balance which was rendered necessary by the almost equal division of Europe between Catholicism and Protestantism. The great treaty of Westphalia is a monument of their office in the system of modern civilization, manifesting, as it does, a generous spirit

142/Auguste Comte

of universal and permanent pacification. The diplomatic solution is, no doubt, very inferior to the old Catholic intervention; for the international organism needs, as much as the national, an intellectual and moral basis, such as the Catholic constitution afforded; and the mere physical antagonism, which was all that diplomacy could establish, could never attain any solidity, and has been of very doubtful utility, if not mischievous, in as far as it afforded scope for political ambition. But it would be unjust to require that a provisional expedient should have the virtues of a normal instrumentality; and the diplomatic function has at least kept alive, among the European states, the idea of some sort of organization, however loose and inadequate, in readiness for the time when a thorough intellectual reorganization shall close the great revolutionary period.

Such was the process of temporal disorganization during the Protestant period; and it was carried out in the same direction, without any essential change, through the deistical period and up to the time of the first French revolution. Here then we may dismiss the first phase of the systematic destruction of the old social system, and, having established the starting-point of the great revolutionary movement, we can proceed all the more rapidly and clearly to estimate the intellectual influence of the Protestant period.

Besides the political action proper to Protestantism, it served as the organ of the universal spirit of emancipation, by preparing for the dissolution, intellectual and social, that the old system must undergo. Though not answerable for the critical doctrine, properly so called, it laid the main foundations of it; and thus the Protestant concussion formed an intermediate situation, which, however transient, could not have been dispensed with. We may consider the whole critical doctrine as reducible to the absolute dogma of individual free inquiry; for this is certainly its universal principle. We have already reviewed, in the first chapter of this volume, the operation, individual, social, and national, of this principle, and there can be no dispute about the fitness of Protestantism to lay the foundations of the revolutionary philosophy, by proclaiming the right of every individual to free inquiry on all subjects whatever notwithstanding the illogical restrictions for ever attempted by itself; restrictions which were, of course, successively rejected by various sects, and which, by their very inconsistency, facilitated the universal admission of the general principle. It was in this way that Protestantism indirectly influenced the nations that had not expressly adopted it, but could

Positive Philosophy/143

not but suppose themselves as well qualified as others for religious emancipation; the greatest philosophical results of which were, in fact, specially reserved for them, as we shall presently see. Now, the universal inoculation with the critical spirit certainly could not operate in a more unmistakeable manner; for, after having audaciously discussed the most respected opinions and the most sacred powers, human reason was not likely to recoil before any social maxim or institution, when the process of analysis should be directed that way. Thus, the first step was by far the most important of all that relate to the formation of the revolutionary doctrine.

The principle free inquiry was at first a simple consequence of the social changes which had been preparing during the two preceding centuries. It was purely negative in its character, being nothing more than a sanction of the state of no-government which intervened between the decay of the old discipline and the formation of new spiritualities. It was simply au abstract declaration of a general fact; and its existence would otherwise have been incomprehensible. There could never be any hindrance to any one exercising the right, but the restraint of former convictions; and the general proclamation of the will to use the right merely testified to the decay of the restraining convictions. The long discussions of the fourteenth century about the European power of the popes, and that of the following century about the independence of the national Churches, had occasioned a large spontaneous exercise of the right of free inquiry, long before that right was set up in dogmatic form; and the Lutheran proclamation of this dogma was a mere extension to the Christian public of a privilege which had been abundantly used by kings and scholars. Thus, the spirit of discussion which is inherent in all monotheism, and especially in Catholicism, had anticipated, throughout Europe, the direct appeal of Protestantism. Indeed, the Lutheran revolution produced no innovation, in regard to discipline, ecclesiastical orders, or dogma, that had not been perseveringly proposed long before so that the success of Luther, after the failure of various premature reformers, was mainly due to the ripeness of the time: a confirmation of which is found in the rapid and easy propagation of the decisive explosion. The spirit of personal emancipation was animated by the subjection of the spiritual to the temporal power, which had now taken place for some time, the late rightful guides of opinion and belief were subordinated to incompetent temporal authorities; and when the ancient intellectual prerogatives of Catholicism had passed into the hands of kings, they could not he

144/Auguste Comte

regarded with the ancient veneration, but must soon yield to that passion for spiritual freedom to which the kings had no objection as long as it did not interfere with material order. And thus was Protestantism, with its dogma of free inquiry, a mere sanction of the pre-existing state to which all Christian nations had been tending for two centuries, Comparing it with the corresponding social state, we stall see it to be the necessary correctives if the temporal dictatorship, in which, as we have seen. the theological and military system had merged. Without it the temporal power would have degenerated into a dark despotism, extinguishing all intellectual and social vigour under the tyranny of an absolutes authority which could naturally conceive of no other method of mental discipline than forcible repression. However great the dangers of abuse of the revolutionary doctrine, we can easily understand the invincible attachment of the European peoples to it, when, amidst the consolidation of aristocratic or regal absolutism, it became the organ of social progression. And, negative as was its essential character, it was the fitting and necessary preparation for the establishment of new social elements, from its encouragement of the spirit of individuality, and the consequent development which it caused of personal energy, whether industrial, aesthetic, or scientific. The two great anomalies,—the temporal dictatorship and the revolutionary doctrine, must be regarded as inseparable, mutually antagonistic, equally necessary for the preservation of society, and together constituting the final phase of the general movement of social decomposition. The one, by its blind reverence for tee past, was for ever restraining the innovations of the other; while the absolute character of negation, on which the critical doctrine prided itself, gave it its counteracting energy; and thus they had in common the absolute tendencies which belong alike to the theological and metaphysical philosophies. Thus it is that by an increasing restriction of political action modern governments have more and more abandoned the direction of the social movement. and have contented themselves with the care of material order, which it became increasingly difficult to reconcile with the continuous development of mental and moral anarchy. In sanctioning such a political situation, the revolutionary doctrine has erred only in setting up as a normal and permanent state of things an exceptional and transient phase, to which its dogmas were perfectly suitable.

Meantime we must not fail to observe the effect of the movement in countries which were not Protestant. The critical action showed itself where the temporal dictatorship was not legally established, by Catholi-

Positive Philosophy/145

cism solemnly invoking the principle of the right of private judgment in favour of its own faith, which was violently oppressed wherever Protestantism prevailed. Special heresies also arose within the body of the Catholic clergy. France was the main support of the Catholic system in the seventeenth century; yet it was in France that Jansenism arose,—a heresy almost as injurious to the old spiritual constitution as Lutheranism itself. This kind of French Protestantism, ardently embraced by a powerful and respected portion of the clergy, and placed under the active protection of judiciary corporations, would certainly have been erected into a real national religion, if the approaching rise of the pure negative philosophy had not carried the leading minds of the nation far beyond it. As it was, Jansenism showed its anti-catholic tendencies by its antipathy to the Jesuits, whose power it ultimately overthrew; while its reception by great philosophers and eminent poets, who could not possibly be suspected of voluntary revolutionary tendencies, shows how congenial it was to the intelligence of the period. I must give a passing notice to another heresy,—that of Quietism,—which, though much less important than Jansenism, is an equally decisive proof of the dissenting tendencies introduced by the use of the right of free inquiry. The philosophical character of Quietism seems to me remarkable as offering a first solemn and simple protest of our moral constitution against theological doctrine in general. It is only in virtue of such protest that the heresy ever had any consistency, or now has any among some natures whose mental development has not kept pace with the moral. All moral discipline founded on a theological philosophy appeals, perseveringly and exorbitantly, to the spirit of selfishness,—not the less for its relating to imaginary interests, which must so engross the solitude of the believer as to make every other kind of consideration very secondary. This religious supremacy of the care for personal salvation is necessary to the social efficacy of theological morality, which would otherwise issue in a mere sanction of apathy. It accords with the infantine age of humanity, which supposes the theological philosophy to be in the ascendant; and it manifests to all eves one of the radical vices of that philosophy, which thus tends to starve out the noblest part of our moral organism, and that which by its small natural energy requires precisely the most systematic culture, by the encouragement of the disinterested and benevolent affections. In this view, Quietism is an involuntary exposure of the imperfection of theological doctrines, and an appeal against it to the finest affections of human nature; and it would have been a movement

146/Auguste Comte

of high importance, if such a protest had not been premature, and framed by the heart more than the mind of the beloved and immortal Fénélon, who was the organ of the heresy. The issue of the controversy involves the death-sentence of the theological philosophy. Fénélon was compelled to admit that he had unintentionally attacked one of the main conditions of existence of the religious system; and any system must be in a state of irrevocable decay that could be so misapprehended by its purest and most eminent champions.

The moral characteristics and prerogatives of the critical doctrine in their provisional state remain to be noticed. Catholicism had spontaneously abdicated its direction of social morals, virtually though not avowedly. Without admitting that it had changed its moral doctrine, it controlled only the weak, on whom it imposed passive obedience, while it extolled the absolute rights of rulers, being silent about their duties, even when it did not husband their vices in the interest of the priesthood; and its subserviency, attending upon power of every kind, descended lower and lower among social ranks, spreading its corruption successively among all, till it at length affected even domestic morality. The critical doctrine, insisting upon the rights of those to whom Catholicism preached only duties, naturally inherited moral prerogatives that Catholicism had abdicated, and all its principles wrought to the same end. The dogma of liberty of conscience revived the great moral obligation, dropped by Catholicism, of using only spiritual instruments in the consolidation of opinions. The dogma of the sovereignty of the people declared the paramount importance of the General interest, too much sacrificed by the existing Catholic doctrine to the ascendancy of the great. The dogma of equality roused the universal dignity of human nature, ignored by the spirit of caste, which had outlived its destination and escaped from moral control. And, finally, the dogma of national independence was the only security, after the rupture of Catholic association, for the existence of small states, and the sole restriction on the tenancy to material incorporation. The hostile character of the critical doctrine prevented its fulfilling its great moral office with regularity and in perfection; but it kept alive and in vigour for three centuries a genuine sense of the moral conditions of humanity. It was subject to insurrectionary tendencies, because the temporal dictatorship confided in a system of organized material force; but the insurrectionary tendency was necessary to avoid the moral abasement and political degradation to which modern society was exposed while awaiting the reorganization

Positive Philosophy/147

which must at length put an end to the deplorable antagonism.

If it were compatible with my object, it would be interesting to show how the views here given of the decline of Catholicism are confirmed by the heresies of modern times. These heresies are the same, under other forms that arose in the early days of Christianity: and hence the retrograde school would fain derive hopes of the renovation of the system: but the fact that the same heresies which were extinguished by the rising Catholic power have been successful in modern times proves that they were once opposed to the corresponding social state, and that they have recently been in accordance with it. At all times, and in all places, the heretical spirit is inherent in the vague and arbitrary character of the theological philosophy: and it is restrained or stimulated, it fails or succeeds, according to the social exigencies of the time. The reproduction of certain heresies tells nothing; but their success indicate a final change in the conditions of the system from which they arise.

It is impossible to enter here upon any detailed account of the Protestant sects, each of which entertained pity for its predecessor and horror of its successor, as the decomposition of the theological system went on. I can only point out the historical principle by which they may be understood and tested, and distinguish the three successive stages of decay of the old system. as regards its discipline, its hierarchy. and its dogma; for, if each Protestant change affected all the three, it must have affected one conspicuously, to be distinguishable from foregoing efforts. The three phases may be indicated by the names of their respective organs, Luther, Calvin, and Socinus, who lived near together as to their years, but at considerable intervals as to their social influence. The dogmatic innovations of Lutheranism were trifling; and it respected the clerical system, except by sanctioning the political subserviency which was only implicit among Catholic peoples: but it overthrew the ecclesiastical discipline, in order to adapt it the better to the servile transformation. This first disorganization, which little affected the Catholic system, was really the only, form in which Protestantism has ever been able to adapt itself to he a state religion,—at least among great independent nations. To this first demolition, Calvinism added that of the hierarchy which sustained the social unity of Catholicism, while introducing only secondary modifications into the dogma, though more extensive than those of Lutheranism. This second phase, with its characteristics of mere opposition, without any formative power or organic durability, seems to me to constitute the true normal situation of Protestantism, for the criti-

148/Auguste Comte

cal spirit discloses itself in antipathy to, the inert regularity of official Lutheranism. Then the third action, that of the anti-trinitarian or Socinian outbreak, added to the rest of the destruction that of the chief articles of faith which distinguished Catholicism from every other form of monotheism: and arising in Italy, under the very eyes of the papacy, it showed the tendency of the Catholic mind to urge the theological dissolution beyond what had hitherto been attempted by Protestant reformers. This was necessarily the movement which doomed Catholicism beyond recall, but, for the same reasons, it made Protestantism too like mere modern deism to let this phase stand as the representative of the transition, of which Presbyterianism remains, in an historical sense, the special organ. After this, there remains really nothing to distinguish among the multiplicity of sects, in regard to social progress, except the general testimony borne by the Quakers against the military spirit of the old regime, when the destruction of the spiritual system by the three instrumentalities just noticed, led to a similar action upon the temporal system. We have seen that the spirit of Protestantism is generally averse to any military system, countenancing war only for the benefit of its own principles: but there is no doubt that the celebrated sect of the Friends, with all its absurdities, and even its quackeries, served as a special organ for that particular manifestation, which places it above all other Protestant sects for the more complete spread of the great revolutionary movement.

Lest my readers should take, or should suppose that I give, too systematic a view of the process of decomposition, I must remind them that the only way in which Protestantism can be viewed as operating systematically is that it caused the decay to go on under the direction of reforming doctrines, instead of by mere conflict of the old political elements. The formation of the negative philosophy into a system could take place, as far as it was possible at all, only under the deistical phase, whose chief office it was, as we shall see, to effect this. The mental operations of Protestantism were in fact the results and not the causes of the revolutions with which we historically connect them; and no political explosions, whatever their force and their interest on other grounds, could establish the tendency of modern societies to complete renovation till they had been preceded by a thorough and systematic critical preparation, which could not happen except under the following phase. For this reason, I can only barely indicate the purely Protestant revolutions which, apart from their local and temporary importance, could be noth-

Positive Philosophy/149

ing more than a mere introduction to the great final change destined to open an issue for the general movement of the human race. The first of these revolutions was that by which Holland threw off the Spanish yoke: and it will be ever memorable as a lofty manifestation of the energy proper to the critical doctrine, thus directing the fortunate insurrection of a small nation against the most powerful monarchy in Europe. The dogma specially illustrated in this case was that of the sovereignty of the people, and also that of national independence,—the chief need being to break an external bond which had become intolerably oppressive. A more general character, more complete and decisive, more marked in its direction towards the social regeneration of the race, was the great, unsuccessful English revolution:—not the little aristocratic and Anglican revolution of 1688, which could meet only a local want; but the democratic and Presbyterian revolution, superintended by the lofty genius of the most advanced statesman that Protestantism has to boast of. It was the dogma of equality which was mainly elaborated under that conflict. Historically the revolution consisted in the generous but premature effort for the political degradation of the English aristocracy,— the chief temporal element of the ancient nationality; and the fall of royalty, under the Protectorate of Cromwell, was only a secondary incident in comparison with the bold suppression of the House of Lords. The social revolution failed politically, for want of due mental preparation; but it was the chief in the whole series of symptoms which were the known precursors of the great decisive European revolution remaining to be examined hereafter. The American revolution was as purely Protestant as the others, and ought to be classed with them, though its date causes it to be erroneously referred to a more advanced stage of the general movement. It did not evolve any new portion of the critical doctrine; and it was simply an extension of the other two Protestant revolutions, but with a prosperous development of political consequences through a combination of favourable conditions. In its origin, it was a reproduction of the Dutch revolution: and in its final expansion, it carried out the English, which it realizes as far at Protestantism will allow. There is nothing to be said for its success, as a decisive social enterprise, for it has developed to excess the inconveniences of the critical doctrine; it sanctions more emphatically than any other society the political supremacy of metaphysicians and legists, among a peoples who pay, through their innumerable unconnected modes of worship, without any real social purpose, a tribute more costly by far than the treasury of

150/Auguste Comte

any existing Catholic clergy. Thus this universal colony. notwithstanding the eminent temporal advantages of its present position, must be regarded as, in fact, in all important respects, more remote from a true social reorganization than the nations from whom it is derived, and to whom it will owe, in course of tine, its final regeneration. The philosophical induction into that ulterior state is not to be looked for in America,—whatever may be the existing illusions about the political superiority of a society in which the elements of modern civilization are, with the exception of industrial activity, most imperfectly developed.

This sketch of the revolutionary doctrine and its action. Would not be complete without some notice of its attendant errors. Omitting all merely local and exceptional abuses, I will briefly refer to a few evils which may to t ailed natural to the doctrine. Of these errors the oldest, the most general, and the most mischievous is the prejudice which condemns, in the absolute spirit of the Metaphysical philosophy, the political existence of ally spiritual power distinct from the temporal, and independent of it. Inevitable and indispensable as was the temporal dictatorship which followed upon the Catholic period, it could not destroy the value of the principle of the separation of the two powers, the theory of which is the most valuable legacy left us by Catholicism, and the only one on which when united with a true positive doctrine, the reorganization of society can proceed. As the reorganization must begin, as did the decline, with the spiritual order of power, this absolute spirit, which aims at establishing eternal principles from transient facts, is a serious misfortune; and the more so, of course, from its universality during the last three centuries. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, the revolutionary spirit has assumed this form in its operation upon all classes of society Protestantism took advantage of the prejudice, though it did not originate it; and the greater part of the Catholic clergy have undergone their political degradation with a growing submission which has effaced the very memory of their ancient independence. Thus has the main principle of modern civilization,—that of the separation of the two powers,—been lost sight of throughout Europe, and the only appearance of a rational appreciation of it is found among the Italian clergy, where it is of no social value, because of the partiality and self-interest naturally attributed to those who hold it. No adverse influences can however prevent the ultimate recognition of a principle so accordant with the condition and needs of modern society. It will assume its full force when the positive philosophy opens the way to social re-organiza-